Creating Spaces for Service-Learning Research: Implications for Emergent Action and Civic Ingenuity

 With the increased interest and participation in service-learning activities in universities and the expanding participation of research faculty in service-learning research, the academic legitimacy of service-learning has been called into question. Critics of service-learning research focus on the perceived lack of rigor (Howard, 2003) resulting from the lack of grounding or purpose of service-learning research, the mixed methods utilized, and the ambiguous purpose of service-learning activities at the university level. Service-learning research has reached a point in time where scholars engaged in service-learning activities in their universities have pronounced the need for research frameworks and articulated theories for service-learning scholarship (Billig, 2003; Deans, 1999; Giles & Eyler, 1994; Liu, 1995; Richman, 1996; Waldstein, 2003; Wolfson & Willinsky, 1998).

Toward that end, the authors borrow Elspeth Probyn's (1990) distinctions between three central spatial metaphors: the local, locale, and location. These metaphors representing three planes of abstraction provide a pattern for re-framing service-learning research. Multi-dimensional service-learning research can be situated in the interactive spaces of student experiences, scientific inquiry, and social innovation. Like Pierce's (1883) interactive triumvirate of inductive, deductive, and abductive reasoning, Probyn's spatial metaphors can be used to "complexify" service-learning research in ways that not only contribute to the academic rigor of service-learning research but also contribute to developing a framework for civic engagement and ingenuity engaging and creating futures.